By The Associated Press

              - Today is Monday, June 21, the 172nd day of 1999. There are 193 days
                left in the year. This is the first day of summer.

              - On June 21, 1788, the Constitution of the United States went into
                effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
              - In 1834 Cyrus Hall McCormick received a patent for his reaping
                machine.
              - In 1932 heavyweight Max Schmeling lost a title fight by decision to
                Jack Sharkey, prompting Schmeling's manager, Joe Jacobs, to exclaim.
                "We was robbed!"
              - In 1945 during World War II, American soldiers on Okinawa found the
                body of the Japanese commander, Lt. Gen. Mitsuru Ushijima, who had
                committed suicide.
              - In 1948 the Republican national convention opened in Philadelphia.
              - In 1963 Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini was chosen to succeed the
                late Pope John XXIII; the new pope took the name Paul VI.
              - In 1964 civil rights workers Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman
                and James E. Chaney disappeared in Philadelphia, Miss. Their bodies
                were found buried in an earthen dam six weeks later.
              - In 1973 the Supreme Court ruled states may ban materials found to be
                obscene according to local standards.
              - In 1977 Menachem Begin became Israel's sixth prime minister.
              - In 1982 a jury in Washington D.C. found John Hinckley Jr. innocent
                by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Reagan and three
                other men.
              - In 1985 scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil
                were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.

              - Ten years ago the Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag
                as a political protest is protected by the First Amendment.
              - Five years ago President Clinton, addressing members of the Business
                Roundtable, made an impassioned call for action on health care
                reform.
              - One year ago in Colombia, former Bogota mayor Andres Pastrana was
                elected the country's president, defeating Horacio Serpa, a key
                player in the scandal-tainted administration of President Ernesto
                Samper. In World Cup soccer, Iran defeated the United States, 2-1.
 

              *Happy Birthday*
              ----------------
              - Cartoonist Al Hirschfeld is 96.
              - Actress Jane Russell is 78.
              - Actress Maureen Stapleton is 74.
              - Actor Bernie Kopell is 66.
              - Actor Monte Markham is 64.
              - Singer O.C. Smith is 63.
              - Actor Ron Ely is 61.
              - Actress Mariette Hartley is 59.
              - Comedian Joe Flaherty is 59.
              - Rock singer-musician Ray Davies (The Kinks) is 55.
              - Singer Brenda Holloway is 53.
              - Actress Meredith Baxter is 52.
              - Actor Michael Gross is 52.
              - Country singer Leon Everette is 51.
              - Rock musician Joey Kramer (Aerosmith) is 49.
              - Rock musician Nils Lofgren is 48.
              - Actress Robyn Douglass is 46.
              - Actor Robert Pastorelli is 45.
              - Cartoonist Berke Breathed is 42.
              - Country singer Kathy Mattea is 40.
              - Actor Marc Copage is 37.
              - Actress Sammi Davis-Voss is 35.
              - Actor Doug Savant is 35.
              - Country musician Porter Howell is 35.
              - Actor Michael Dolan is 34.
              - Actress Juliette Lewis is 26.
              - Britain's Prince William of Wales is 17.